EP Review : Ranges – And the People Cried out for a King

And The People Cried Out For A King stands the distance with grandiose, dusty, warm and atmospheric post-rock, performed to perfection.

Ranges is a post-rock band from Bozeman, Montana, USA and this 7″ contains 2 songs: Crown and Kingdom. The single is also available digitally on bandcamp.

I haven’t listened to Ranges before and I must say I’m pretty impressed. I simply love the sound of these 2 songs.

A common feature of both songs is that you can almost see and feel the surroundings of Ranges hometown and geographical area.

First thing I did when listening was to google Bozeman Montana to get a picture of how nature looks like in that area.

Nature music

What I found is, really what I would imagine from listening to the music. It’s grandiose, it’s dusty, it’s warm and it has some faint influences to alt.country. I can easily imagine the wide plains & the mountains as an inspiration for Ranges music.

I love the effect on the guitar that is dominant on both songs. A kind of tape recorder that speeds up and down. It gives an awesome effect. Not only this guitar, but all instruments plays a good role in the music.

If I should should try to put some references, I would say that Ranges sounds like a blend of Caspian and This Will Destroy You, crossed with Sparklehorse simplicity and beauty. Ranges is definitely post-rock, no doubt about that, but what also set’s them apart from many other post-rock bands, is the length of their songs. Ranges doesn’t need to make 10 minute build ups to write engaging songs. They do it perfectly within 4-5 minutes. Thumbs up for that.

Excellent production and musicianship to yearn for

Both songs are excellent music, and production is sweet. It really sounds like a million. All instruments in the soundscape fits perfectly together, like everyone know how their best contribution to the songs should be. I really enjoy the drummers laid back performance on these two songs. For example in the beginning of Crown where you have tiny guitar swells and drilling guitars that are so far away that you can barely hear it. These subtle effects, that supports the main melodies is what makes the sound of Ranges wholly. At some parts I think I hear some faint keyboards, but I’m really in doubt if it’s actually the guitars that are just perfectly modulated to resemble keyboard like sounds.

Only minor thing I have, is that I don’t really like fade endings, it’s a bit like ‘hmmm we are not really done with writing the song so we just fade it, instead of making an end’. I think it would have been way better to musically dissolve the song when actually playing it. I could imagine that, this is what is being done anyway, when performing live. This is really a minor thing though, since the beauty of the song is so strong.

There’s a million post-rock bands out there, and Ranges is one more of them. It can be difficult to stand out, but Ranges is, without any doubt, a band that is, well on the way for my personal top 10 in that genre. They really stand the distance, and is a million miles ahead of the rest. Ranges are their own and you can hear that.

I can’t really pick a favourite here, I think both Crown and Kingdom are great songs and I am for sure, looking forward to the release of the full length album by Ranges – The Ascensionist, out September 22. Next up for me is to dive into the previous releases of Ranges, while waiting for the next release.

It’s not possible to preorder yet. Preorders should be available around September 1, at Dunk!Records in Europe and A Thousand Arms in US.